The Liturgical Recitative Between Tradition and Innovation

The Liturgical Recitative Between Tradition and Innovation considers various aspects of the functions, ethos and musical peculiarities of the liturgical recitative, as practiced in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Within a fairly well-delimited range of oral action during religious service, between ecphonetic chanting and the quasi-solemn declamation, as a symbiotic fusion of word and singing the liturgical recitative in the established tradition of the Romanian Orthodox Church has to show qualities of modesty and restraint against the temptation of using embellishments rooted in the personal imagination rather than spiritual depth manifesting in mildness and submission before the will of God.

Eugen-Dan Drăgoi